1959 Lead Series | Marshall Super Lead Inspired Overdrive | Hand Built Veroboard

Description

Description of Product

One of the most interesting things about an old Marshall Super Lead is what happens when you start blending the High Treble and Normal channels.

You can have that sharp, aggressive top end that almost takes your ears off, or the thick, growling lower midrange that you associate with somebody like Paul Kossoff.

But the really interesting sounds happen when you start combining the two.

That’s what attracted me to Marshall’s 1959 overdrive circuit.

I wanted to see whether I could take that idea, build it entirely on Veroboard, and end up with something that had the same sort of versatility.

And this is the result.

The 1959 Lead Series is the largest overdrive circuit I’ve built to date. Three dual opamps, a substantial collection of resistors, capacitors and diodes, all assembled by hand onto a single Veroboard circuit.

There’s considerably more going on inside this than most of my overdrive builds.

Everything has been individually soldered, wired and assembled here in the Hello Sailor workshop.

The enclosure has a textured, hammered silver finish, four machined aluminium knobs, a Union Jack badge and a brushed metal 1959 Lead Series nameplate.

Inside, the circuit is surrounded by individually routed pink wiring, neatly secured around the enclosure.

I built four of these as part of my YouTube experiment, where Budget Pedal Chap compares my version against Marshall’s own 1959 Super Lead overdrive and the inexpensive Flamma FC20 Brit Dist.

One has gone to Budget Pedal Chap for the comparison.

That leaves three available.

These are independent Hello Sailor Effects builds inspired by Marshall’s circuit, with no official connection to Marshall.

Description of Sound

The High Treble and Normal controls are what make this pedal particularly interesting.

High Treble

Turn this up and you get that sharp, cutting Marshall character.

There’s plenty of bite, with an aggressive upper midrange and a treble response that can become quite spiky when you push it.

It’s the sort of sound that makes a guitar jump out of a mix. Hard edged, bright and capable of getting rather nasty when you want it to.

Normal

This is where the other side of the sound comes in.

Fuller, thicker and with considerably more weight in the lower midrange.

There’s that rounded, growling character associated with the old Plexi amplifiers and the sort of singing, muscular overdrive that made Paul Kossoff’s guitar sound so recognisable.

Rather than relying entirely on brightness to give the guitar some aggression, there’s plenty of body behind the notes.

Blending the Channels

This is the part I particularly like.

You can take the fuller sound of the Normal channel and introduce just enough High Treble to give it some definition.

Or start with the aggressive High Treble sound and bring in Normal to add some weight underneath it.

The two controls change the character of the signal feeding the distortion rather than simply altering the finished sound.

And that makes a considerable difference to how useful the controls are.

You’re not restricted to choosing between a bright overdrive and a dark one.

You can find a balance between the two.

The separate Tone control lets you shape the result, while Volume determines the output level going into your amplifier.

It’s an extremely versatile arrangement, particularly if you’re interested in the different characters of classic Marshall overdrive rather than one fixed Plexi sound.

Controls and Construction

High Treble: Controls the brighter, more aggressive contribution to the distortion.

Normal: Controls the fuller, lower midrange contribution.

Tone: Shapes the overall tonal balance.

Volume: Controls the output level.

Circuit: Marshall 1959 Super Lead inspired analogue overdrive.

Construction: Hand assembled Veroboard circuit with three dual opamps.

Power: Regulated 9V DC, centre negative.

Finish: Textured hammered silver with aluminium controls, Union Jack badge and brushed metal nameplate.

Internal wiring: Individually routed and secured wiring.

Quantity: Four built, one supplied to Budget Pedal Chap, three available.

Call to Action

I built four of these because I wanted to find out how much of that old Marshall character could be recreated using a relatively straightforward analogue approach.

It’s turned out to be one of the more involved overdrive projects I’ve undertaken, and the relationship between High Treble and Normal makes it particularly rewarding to play around with.

Three of the four builds are available through Hello Sailor Effects.

Each has been individually assembled and tested, rather than produced as part of a continuing production run.

If this is the sort of Marshall sound you’ve been looking for, they’re available on the website.

November offer

There is currently 20% off Hello Sailor Effects pedals until 30 November 2026.

Use code HSE20 at checkout.

https://hellosailoreffects.com/shop/